The invention relates generally to parasite control in bee hives, and more specifically, to a mechanical separator for the physical removal of parasites from bees.
Bees, like most living organisms, are susceptible to a variety of parasites that may have harmful effects on colony development and productivity. These parasites may have a particularly detrimental impact for professional beekeepers, who depend on the production of honey from bees for their livelihood, and also for scientists, hobbyists, and others who study bee colonies. Known bee parasites include tracheal mites (acarapis woodi internus), tropilaelaps (tropilaelaps clareae), bee lice (braula coeca) and varroa mites (varroa jacpbsoni).
One significant event affecting twentieth century beekeeping has been the spread of the parasitic varroa bee mite varroa jacobsoni, also known as varroa destructor. Varroa is thought to have originated in East Asia, but is now known to exist on all continents except Australia. Varroa was first detected in North America in 1987 and has spread to all regions of the continent except perhaps to the most isolated areas. The parasitic varroa mites spend their entire life cycle in a bee colony, and typically a varroa-infested colony will die within a few years of infestation, unless a beekeeper intervenes with an effective mite control method.
Current varroa mite control strategies typically include the use of chemical acaricides. Such introduction of chemical pesticides into the hives will be understood to be a primary line of defense to varroa mites. It will be appreciated, however, that the use of chemical pesticides in hives can create numerous undesirable effects. For example, chemical varroa mite controls may inadvertently cause selection for resistance to the treatments due to slight gene variations in the mites. This resistance may render the treatment ineffective due to the brief morphology of varroa mites, and may result in future generations of chemical-resistant mites. Furthermore, some chemical treatments may leave measurable traces of the chemical behind in the wax, possibly detracting from the wholesome image of honey and other products of the hive. Chemical treatments may also inadvertently cause selection of undesirable traits in bees, including increased susceptibility to future parasitization. Chemical mite controls may also place a significant financial drain on beekeepers.
Attempts at more organic varroa mite controls have typically involved labor-intensive procedures. For example, drone brood foundation placed in the hive for the purpose of trapping varroa mites may involve the beekeeper in multiple added visits to each hive. Other hive manipulations include the use of drone combs as varroa traps, and heat treatment of infested combs.
Total eradication of varroa has thus far not been practical. Despite use of the aforementioned varroa mite control strategies, bee colony losses in many areas have ranged from 30% to 100% in recent years. This has delivered a crushing blow to beekeepers and their operations. A need therefore exists for an improved method of removing parasites, particularly varroa mites, from bees and from bee colonies.
A separator for facilitating removal of parasites from bees is provided. The separator includes a bee filtration screen configured to receive bees, to allow passage of parasites therethrough, and to restrict passage of bees therethrough. An agitator is provided to agitate the bee filtration screen so as to dislodge parasites from bees received by the bee filtration screen.